Penn State Preview

Did you actually think Joe Paterno would retire after a few very disappointing seasons with the Penn State Nittany Lions? Of course not, the legendary coach worked hard to turn his team around and that effort has paid off, especially on the recruiting front. Joe Paterno now seems to be getting only younger, and his recent physical only seems to support this (which stated he could coach for at least another ten years or so), and the recent successes have allowed him to bring in a couple good recruiting classes. There were quite a few new freshman that contributed to the Penn State turnaround last year, and expect those young players to be even better and to combine with the new recruiting class to truly provide the Nittany Lions with a lot of talented youth on all fronts.

In fact, if you look up and down the first and second strings of the Nittany Lions’ roster, you will notice that there are a ton of sophomores listed. This single fact is what has Penn State fans drooling over the future, as they rightfully should be. Young talent combined with an amazing coach equals to future success, and Joe Paterno is the right man for the job when it comes to molding these athletes into outstanding football players and great NFL prospects.

That being said, the team is just that, young. Although they do have quite a few seniors starting on defense, much of the talent lies in the younger players on the team, who are all fighting to dethrone their more experienced teammates. However, it is this youth which could be the downfall of the Penn State team. Penn State is competing in a well balanced Big Ten conference that will look to exploit that youth week in and week out. Joe Paterno will have to pull off a great coaching job this year to prepare his team to compete and perform at the kind of levels that his talented players are capable of performing at.

Penn State may not repeat all off the successes of last year, but the team still does look strong for the future. If their young talent can play like veterans, expect Penn State to be in the BCS mix. If not, expect them to be struggling in the Big Ten.